Georgia - Woman Death-Strangles Rabid Bobcat

In an outright fight for her life, a Georgia mother says she was attacked by a rabid bobcat and had to strangle it to death. 46-year-old Dede Philips of Hart County says she was taking a picture of a new bumper sticker she put on her truck when she heard a neighbor's dog begin barking loudly. Without further warning, the bobcat "took two steps and was on top of me. … It came for my face."

"It caught me slightly on my face, but I got him before he could do much damage there. I took it straight to the ground and started inching my hands up to its throat. I knew that was the only way I was getting out of this," Philips said. She found herself squeezing the cat's neck while forcing herself not to scream so her 5-year-old daughter would not come outside.

When the bobcat went limp, Philips yelled for her daughter-in-law to call 911. Her son also ran onto the scene with a gun and a knife. "My son stabbed it four or five times, but it never budged so I knew it was completely dead," she said. Hart County Sheriff’s Office deputies and an ambulance arrived at the scene and Phillips was taken to a local hospital and treated for a broken finger, as well as claw and bite marks to a large part of her upper body, arms, and legs.

The bobcat tested positive for rabies which has cost Phillips $10,000 in vaccinations so far. <a href="https://fundly.com/let-s-help-dede?ft_pid=xuaeiyxn">A crowdfunding campaign</a> was started to help her with the high costs of the rabies treatments. Her family says she is a "lady who would give you the shirt off her back and will drop whatever she is doing to come help. She loves hard and is one heck of a woman! She is also having to go to an orthopedic doctor about her hands. She currently has very little use of them and is in a lot of pain."